Tales from the SFR Brigade On Amazon

The SFR Brigade is happy to announce that "Tales from the SFR Brigade" is finally up on Amazon. You may have already seen a previous post about the book on my blog a few months ago, but this is a science fiction romance anthology by eight different authors. My story, 'The Stranger,' was one of the stories chosen and it has been very exciting to be a part of this anthology.

Warm yourself up on a cold winter day, or night, with this free book!

Did I mention it was free? It's totally FREE!

Check out the description:

Experience love and adventure among the stars in ‘Tales from the SFR Brigade,’ a digital anthology of eight Science Fiction Romance stories.

• A space captain discovers the cyborg she loves just might be her greatest enemy.
• A mind-wiped prostitute risks all when she recruits a dangerous stranger to help her escape a terrible fate.
• A prisoner-of-war confronts the comrade who loved her, then left her for dead.
• A space-obsessed physics teacher is kidnapped by a far-too-charming alien.
• An apocalypse survivor battles the biomech-enhanced hunter who seeks to capture her.
• A young artist must choose between her comfortable life on Earth or a war-torn space colony with her beloved.
• A daring thief is on the run from the alien law man who is determined to bring her to justice.
• A widowed rebel leader tries to save the last remnants of humanity, one stranger at a time. (This one is for my story, 'The Stranger.' ;))

From Earth to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, explore the worlds of Science Fiction Romance with stories from Linnea Sinclair, Marcella Burnard, Erica Hayes, Liana Brooks, Pippa Jay, Berinn Rae, Amy Laurens, and Kyndra Hatch.

 

 Download it from Amazon here.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

The SFR Brigade Presents (19)

Welcome back to The Science Fiction Romance Brigade Presents! This weekly event is when members of The SFR Brigade get together and post snippets from their books or WIPs.

What I am presenting this week is a snippet from my WIP that I've been calling the 'Fracture Series.' My short story, 'The Stranger,' that is published in "Tales From the SFR Brigade" is set in the far future of the snippets I have posted so far. If you're interested in those snippets, you can read them in the following blog posts: The SFR Brigade Presents (1) , The SFR Brigade Presents (3) , SFRBP (4) .

In this snippet, Miaxa has been separated from her team and is flying the 'Illusion.' She is trying to land so that the team can climb on board and escape the Skellyds that are closing in on their position. Leeda, the leader of that team and Miaxa's best friend, forces her to make a difficult choice. This particular entry is from Leeda's point of view.

Enjoy!

88888

"Leeda, I can't get to you." Miaxa sounded frustrated and desperate through the link.

Leeda and her fellow Gathons watched from their position on the ground as their ship dodged the airborne Skellyds. Miaxa flew over them, but it was clear that she was never going to be able to land.

Leeda glanced at Tinton, who nodded, already knowing the only choice they were faced with at that moment. The 'Illusion' was his ship and Leeda always remembered that.

"Fly into it," Leeda transmitted to Miaxa.

"What?" Miaxa exclaimed in shock.

"Fly into the portal," Leeda transmitted clearly.

"No way!"

Leeda and her companions watched helplessly as Miaxa flew Tinton's ship over the portal but not into it.

"Fly into it now before they close it," Leeda bit out.

"No," Miaxa yelled. "I'm not leaving you."

"Do it! That's an order."

The first two Skellyds were closing in on the ship from the starboard and port sides. The Skell that didn't seem to run out of missiles was closing in on its aft and a newcomer was flying straight at it from the front. Leeda could see that Miaxa had a clear shot through the portal if she banked hard to the left while pitching the ship into another nose dive. If she would just do it. She had to know that was her only option; either fly through the portal or get blown out of the sky.

"I will find you," Miaxa whispered as she finally dove into the portal, her quiet promise echoing through the link as she disappeared.

88888

For more of this week's snippets, go to the SFR Brigade blog. Or, click on the links of the other participants below:

The Science Fiction Romance Brigade Anthology

Tales From the SFR Brigade 

The Stranger by Kyndra Hatch

I am happy to announce my debut publication! It is a very late announcement since the publication came out in late June, but I was moving right as the book came out and things have only just now slowed down enough for me to blog about the good news. 

So much has happened since January that I don't know where to start, so I'll try starting at the beginning:

I am a member of the Science Fiction Romance Brigade. It is a fantastic group of authors, readers, and SFR enthusiasts who help each other with writing questions, book promotion, and even book production. Late last year, sometime around November, a submission call was sent out for group members to send in short stories for an anthology. It was an experiment to get a free publication out for SFR awareness and promotion. 

But it wasn't just any 'ol experiment. They weren't looking for random half-hearted stories. They wanted good, professional, works and put together a stellar team of editors to decide which stories were publication worthy. 

Something about this submission call really spoke to me. I didn't have anything out at the time and the same self-doubt that kept me from writing before was trying to creep into my subconscious. They were asking for professional stories. They never straight up worded it that way, but I knew that's what they were looking for. I knew it had to be good. Was my work professional enough? Did I know the right formula for writing a SFR story? Was there a formula?

I already knew I could write, having gained that confidence through writing fan fiction. I just didn't know what it takes to write a publication worthy story. I'm still not entirely sure what it takes, but it's a learning process that I'm enjoying.

Writing a short story felt doable and I wanted to submit something so bad that I simply went for it. I spend a couple of weeks thinking about what I would write. Ideas are always bombarding my brain, but nothing was coming through that would be short enough. I started out with the thought that I could write a flash fiction, but quickly realized just how hard it is to write flash fiction. Seriously, sit down and try to write a story with only 1,000 words. Obviously, people can do it, but I think it might be more difficult than writing a full on novel.

I took numerous breaks, reading flash fiction to hopefully get the right frame of mind to write it. Unfortunately, I can't remember what I read since I was reading so much, but something about a couple being trapped in a cave sparked my imagination. I immediately stopped reading and started writing. I'm not even sure how that cave story ended because I haven't been able to find it again (I was perusing a lot of free sites on the web).

As Christmas holidays set in, I began to lose heart because it didn't look like I would make the beginning of January deadline. Then, the deadline date was moved to the end of January, so I continued the story with renewed vigor and was able to submit it on time. 

Then came the inevitable waiting game I hear so many authors talking about. Thank goodness I didn't have to wait as long as most of those discussions imply. I received an email in March. Knowing what it would be about, I put off opening it for a day, too nervous about the shortcomings I knew my story had. 

When I finally opened the email, I wasn't surprised that it was a rejection letter. I had researched and learned several things about points of view, voice, and showing versus telling after the story submission and I knew my story had all those issues.

However, with the rejection letter came a surprising second chance. It turned out that they really liked the story idea and gave me suggestions on how to bring it up to speed. If I was willing to revise it based on their suggestions, then I had another deadline. If I wasn't willing to revise, then they wished me luck in submitting the story elsewhere.

Now, I'm not proud and certainly not too proud to take direction. I'm an amateur and these folks were the professionals. Flattered that they liked the story idea and a more than willing student to improve my writing skills, I went through each suggestion with the enthusiasm of a preschooler with a new box of crayons. The best part about it was that I understood each and every issue they were addressing. All I needed was that little extra advice, because the story simply popped after that. 

Of course, the second chance wasn't a guarantee that the story would be accepted, but that part no longer mattered to me. What mattered was that I was getting help from proven authors. What mattered was that I was improving my writing skills. What mattered was that I would be more prepared for the next time I submitted a story for publication.

They said to submit the revised story to Diane Dooley, which make me even more excited because I had read and liked her works. She was also the person that helped me get more involved in the group and, therefore, indirectly responsible for all the stuff I had learned about writing through the group discussions. The thing I love about being a part of the SFR Brigade is how accessible and helpful all the authors are.

It wasn't two days after I submitted the revised edition that Ms. Diane Dooley forwarded it on for acceptance, that it was exactly what they were looking for. I was so excited, I couldn't stand it!

Naively, I thought that would be it, that the story would be published in the summer and that my job was done. I had no idea about the editing process...Since that is where I admit I am such a noob that I had no idea who the famous SFR authors were either, that is another story. 

For now, enjoy "Tales From the SFR Brigade" and my short story within, 'The Stranger,' as well as the fabulous short stories by Linnea Sinclair, Marcella Burnard, Erica Hayes, Liana Brooks, Pippa Jay, Berinn Rae, and Amy Laurens!

Smashwords: Tales From the SFR Brigade

Website: Tales from the SFR Brigade Anthology


Like the SFR Brigade Facebook Fanpage: Science-Fiction-Romance-Brigade-Fanpage

The SFR Brigade 2nd Midsummer Blog Hop - Out of this World

 

Welcome to the second SFR Brigade blog hop! The theme this summer is 'Out of This World.' I love this theme because I love daydreaming about other worlds and the beings that inhabit them. I wonder what those beings could be like, what they're made of, whether or not they think and feel, what their culture would be like.

There are a lot of movies out there that have aliens from outer space coming to Earth and immediately killing us. Sometimes we know the reason, sometimes we don't, but I always come away from those movies feeling like something is lacking. They rarely tell us much about those aliens.

I want to know who the aliens are. I want to know what makes them do the things they do. My imagination has to fill those unknowns.

So, for my yet-to-be-published works, I write about aliens. Even more interesting to me, is that they have the capacity to love. Science fiction romance is a great fit!

My aliens have been torn apart by war. They are called the Gathons and the Skellyds. If war were black and white, the Gathons are the good guys and the Skellyds are the bad guys. Both are of the same species from the same planet, but have divided themselves into factions with those names. War, however, isn't so black and white and I love to explore what makes a being 'good' versus 'evil' and all the grey areas in between.

The Gathons and Skellyds are energy beings made of pure energy, called cores. In order to contain this energy core, they have to inhabit some sort of body. They cannot inhabit organic bodies, because the energy will burn up all organic components. So, they inhabit metallic bodies, full of wiring and electronic components to include computerized 'brains.'

They are able to survive as pure energy without inhabiting a metallic frame, but those that choose to do so can only communicate by joining with another energy being. This creates a permanent bond that some find undesirable. In fact, the Skellyds are against any type of bond and consider it a weakness to be destroyed. So, they take a humanoid shape in metallic bodies that are powered by their energy cores and their thoughts are saved in their CPUs. Those thoughts can be voiced through electronic vocal systems, such as speakers or vocal chords made of wiring.

These energy beings are capable of intense hatred, but also a deep love that can define them. Skellyds avoid the part of themselves that allows them to love. Gathons, however, embrace it.

By combining their energy cores, they form a permanent bond with a love on a level so deep that humans have a hard time grasping what it would be like. They become Love. Once that bond is formed, the couple communicates through the bond. Separation becomes painful and one bonded Gathon is usually never too far from the other. The bond strengthens them, but there is a catch that all Skellyds consider the biggest weakness of their kind of all: if one dies, the other dies soon after...

So many wonderful possibilities to explore with the Gathons and Skellyds. I can hardly wait to unleash them into the literary world!

If you're interested in SFR book releases, or science fiction romance in general, check out The Science Fiction Romance Brigade fanpage on Facebook.



Check out the posts of all the other participants. You can also find a list of their names on The SFR Brigade blog spot. They are out of this world!

1. Diane Dooley              15. Imogene Nix                        29. Anna Hackett
2. Kimber Vale                16. Rinelle Grey                        30. Tonya Cannariato
3. Maria Hammarblad     17. Veronica Scott                     31. T.C. Archer
4. Bookswagger              18. Reading Reality                    32. Sabrina Garie
5. C.E. Kilgore                19. Spacefreighters Lounge       33. Kyndra Hatch
6. Liana Brooks               20. Pippa Jay                             34. S.A. Huchton
7. Cathy Pegau                21. Melisse Aires                       35. T.K. Toppin
8. Misa Buckley              22. Pauline Baird Jones             36. Jo Jones
9. Yolanda Sfetsos          23. Sandra C. Stixrude               37. Liza O'Connor
10. Rachel Leigh Smith  24. Monica Enderle Pierce         38. Isabo Kelly
11. Greta van der Rol      25. The Galaxy Express            39. Nina Croft
12. Jessica E. Subject      26. Linda Mooney                     40. Cathryn Cade
13. Diane Burton             27. Aubrie Dionne
14. E.A. Hoornaert          28. A.R. Norris







Now for the prizes!

1st Prize - $150 Amazon or B&N gift card (winner's choice) and an ebook bundle (currently Ghost in the Machine, Bayne, Recast Book 1:Wither, Recast Book 2:Clash, Alien Adoration, Switched, Reckless Rescue, Wreck of the Nebula Dream, Keir, Terms & Conditions Apply, The Key, Marya, The Iron Admiral, Sasha’s Calling, Trouble at the Hotel Baba Ghanoush, Winter in Paradise, Once Upon a Time in Space, the Telomere trilogy, Winter Fusion, Blue Nebula, Demential, Wytchfire, Maven, Fires of Justice, Interface, Girl under Glass, and Breakout. Bonus books – Ghost Planet, The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy and Deception, and Games of Command.)

2nd Prize - $50 Amazon or B&N gift card (winner's choice)

3rd Prizes - four $25 Amazon or B&N gift cards (given to separate
winners and their choice)

Enter to win (goes live at 00:01 Pacific Time on June 21st): a Rafflecopter giveaway. Good luck!

A comment is not mandatory for my post, but I'm interested in your thoughts if you'd like to share them. Have fun on the hop!

 

The SFR Brigade Presents (4)

Hello everybody! Welcome back to The Science Fiction Romance Brigade Presents #sfrbp. This week's snippet is from an excerpt that I posted about a year ago. Since I've been posting snippets from my 'Fracture' storyline, I wanted to include this bit of insight for the SFR Brigade Presents.

The characters in the snippet from this work in progress are metaloids, mechanoids, mechs...I'm still working on what to call them. Nothing about them is organic, but they aren't robots either. In fact, being called a robot by a human would be insulting to them.

This snippet is set in the Scrap Yards of Histerron, which is like a junk yard. Histerron is a Skellyd city. Skellyds are the 'bad guys' of the story, but being 'bad' or 'good' in the story is not really so black and white...I definitely explore the gray areas with each faction. I haven't come up with a name for the 'good guys,' but Bazin is a 'good guy.'

I mentioned in my first snippet for SFR Brigade Presents (SFRBP 1) that Bazin and Miaxa are survivors of a long war. This particular snippet shows a bit of Bazin as a soldier.

Enjoy!

***

　

Bazin saw them too late; two Skellyds. He jumped behind a pile of scrap metal, rolling out his arm-mounted cannon, waiting for the attack.

The attack never came.

He was beginning to think that, perhaps, they didn't see him. Bazin peeked out from his hiding place to see if they were still there; they were. They looked like they were lying low, waiting for something.

After a few more moments, it was clear that they hadn't seen him after all. He decided to sneak around them from behind to get the drop on them before they knew what hit them...

As Bazin came around them from behind, he stopped dead in his tracks. Dropping his arms down to his sides as he rolled his cannon back in its casing, he stood up, staring at them as he walked in front of them. His core sank at the horror before him.

They were two bonded Skellyds. They had been executed. They had probably been the only bonded Skellyds in the city, hiding it for as long as they could.

Bazin just stared at them, several emotions taking hold that twisted his core. He still hated them because they were Skells, but the single act that they would be frozen in forever gripped him...

They were holding hands.

***

For more fun snippets, check out the SFR Brigade. Or click on the names of this week's participants below:

Rachel Leigh Smith ~ Laurel Wanrow ~ Maria Hammarblad ~ T.K. Anthony

The SFR Brigade Presents (4)

Hello everybody! Welcome back to The Science Fiction Romance Brigade Presents #sfrbp. This week's snippet is from an excerpt that I posted about a year ago. Since I've been posting snippets from my 'Fracture' storyline, I wanted to include this bit of insight for the SFR Brigade Presents.

The characters in the snippet from this work in progress are metaloids, mechanoids, mechs...I'm still working on what to call them. Nothing about them is organic, but they aren't robots either. In fact, being called a robot by a human would be insulting to them.

This snippet is set in the Scrap Yards of Histerron, which is like a junk yard. Histerron is a Skellyd city. Skellyds are the 'bad guys' of the story, but being 'bad' or 'good' in the story is not really so black and white...I definitely explore the gray areas with each faction. I haven't come up with a name for the 'good guys,' but Bazin is a 'good guy.'

I mentioned in my first snippet for SFR Brigade Presents (SFRBP 1) that Bazin and Miaxa are survivors of a long war. This particular snippet shows a bit of Bazin as a soldier.

Enjoy!

***

　

Bazin saw them too late; two Skellyds. He jumped behind a pile of scrap metal, rolling out his arm-mounted cannon, waiting for the attack.

The attack never came.

He was beginning to think that, perhaps, they didn't see him. Bazin peeked out from his hiding place to see if they were still there; they were. They looked like they were lying low, waiting for something.

After a few more moments, it was clear that they hadn't seen him after all. He decided to sneak around them from behind to get the drop on them before they knew what hit them...

As Bazin came around them from behind, he stopped dead in his tracks. Dropping his arms down to his sides as he rolled his cannon back in its casing, he stood up, staring at them as he walked in front of them. His core sank at the horror before him.

They were two bonded Skellyds. They had been executed. They had probably been the only bonded Skellyds in the city, hiding it for as long as they could.

Bazin just stared at them, several emotions taking hold that twisted his core. He still hated them because they were Skells, but the single act that they would be frozen in forever gripped him...

They were holding hands.

***

For more fun snippets, check out the SFR Brigade. Or click on the names of this week's participants below:

Rachel Leigh Smith ~ Laurel Wanrow ~ Maria Hammarblad ~ T.K. Anthony

The SFR Brigade Presents (3)

Welcome to another installment of The SFR Brigade Presents, where several authors get together and post snippets from their science fiction romance stories. This is another snippet from my work in progress that I'm calling "Fracture" for now. You might recognize Bazin and Miaxa from my last snippet (The SFR Brigade Presents #1 ). Ander is an alien doctor (still haven't figured out what to call these aliens). This particular snippet is a long while after Bazin suffered a near-fatal injury of which he's still unconsciously struggling to survive and what that is like for Miaxa.

Enjoy!

***

Time. It is the beginning and end of all things. It is the great equalizer. With enough passage of time, all wounds can be healed, all hurts comforted.
 
'Not all wounds,' Miaxa thought bitterly as she rubbed her chest over her core.

All Ander said to her was that he needed time, before reminding her that the passage of time was a powerful thing.

"Time has the power to heal, Miaxa."

"It also has the power to drive one mad."

Time was not Miaxa's ally. As the sun moved across the sky, marking each Earth day, Miaxa became more and more impatient. She couldn't recharge. She couldn't be comforted. She was inconsolable.

She could feel echoes of Bazin, as if he could be there or be gone at any moment. One moment he was there, strong as ever, and the next would feel like he was drifting away, slipping from their bond without so much as a whisper of goodbye. Every moment felt like that to Miaxa and she didn't know how much more time she could stand. Yet, not that much time had passed at all. Every moment just felt like eons to her.

***

For more fun snippets, go through this link and select the names of the other participants:  The SFR Brigade Presents
Or, click on their names below:

Anna Hackett  ~ C.E. Kilgore ~ Frances Pauli ~ E.A. Hoornaert ~ Rachel Leigh Smith ~ Jess Anastasi ~ Greta van der Rol ~ Kim Knox ~ Maria Hammarblad ~ Laurie A. Green ~ Laurel Wanrow ~ Sarah Shade ~ Melisse Aires

The SFR Brigade Presents

Welcome to The SFR Brigade Presents! This is where a group of authors from The Science Fiction Romance Brigade get together and post snippets from their works.

For your reading pleasure, I present to you a snippet from a project that I have been working on. I don't have a set title for it, but have been thinking of calling it, "Fracture." There's a lot more to it, but the short description is that it is about space aliens who have survived a long war and are now marooned on Earth with a human that's trying to understand them. In this snippet, the human, Alex, sees them being affectionate and wonders if aliens can be lovers. Enjoy!

***

Alex caught movement in a grove of trees and headed in that direction, the anger he had directed at them bleeding away with each step. As he came to the edge of the treeline, he saw them, and then stopped in his tracks, awed by what he was seeing.

Bazin was holding Miaxa in his arms, their chests making a humming noise. Alex realized, with curiosity, that they were resonating in unison. Their hands were cupped behind their necks with that strange wire connection. She was caressing the side of his face, idly tracing the scar there with her thumb.

Bazin had told Alex some of the craziest war stories he had ever heard, but he never told Alex how he got that scar. Bazin was leaning his head into her touch, his optical sensors shuttered.

Were they in love? Could space aliens even be lovers?

They were speaking softly to each other in that weird electronic whirring language, though there seemed to be some deeper communication going on, either through the wire or their chests or both. Bazin looked the most content Alex had ever seen him, but also...sad.

***

For more fun snippets, go through this link and select the names of the other participants: SFR Brigade Presents   Or select their names from the list below:

Misa Buckley -- Eva Caye  -- Rachel Leigh Smith  -- Larriane Wills -- Melisse Aires -- Krystal Brookes -- Sarah Shade -- Maria Hammarblad -- Erica Hayes -- Stormie Kent -- E.A. Hoornaert